8 Factors to Consider When Evaluating a Next Generation ECM Platform 1 — Look at New Approaches to Software Acquisition. Back at the turn of the century (yes we mean the late 1990s…) there was but one way to acquire a content management product to meet enterprise document or records management needs. We bought per-seat or per-server licenses that shipped on CD from the software vendor, crossed our fingers that we budgeted for enough seats or connections for key employees, all while hoping that the vendor roadmap delivered the fixes and features we quickly realized were missing. In 2010 things are different. The options to acquire ECM software have changed dramatically, offering a far richer range of choices to serve customer needs—not just those of the vendor. Open source and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are two new approaches that put power back into the hands of the enterprise. Simple, clear online downloads or subscription sign-ups via the web cut through the red tape of license keys, the endless sales cycle theatrical negotiations, and lets your team get started on an ECM project Today. 2 — Interoperability is Hot. Closed Systems are Not. 2010 will be the year that content silos get harvested—not…

While creating an Information Management Strategy, you need to determine the most important piece to getting your documents digitized and that is the scanner. There are many choices on the market ranging from low end, 25 pages per minute and up desktop scanners to production scanners that will perform at 100 pages per minute and up. Almost all have duplex scanning to scan both sides of a document, To determine the best scanner for your needs, consider these items… 8 Ways to Choose the Proper Scanner for your Needs 1 — Scan Speed and Duty Cycle. When determining the scanner for your organizations strategy, you want to make sure that you have one that will complete the project in the specified time frame. You will want to determine the amount of documents you are looking to capture and the timeframe you are looking to complete the project in. In a lot of cases, organizations will purchase a less expensive scanner that is not designed to handle the throughput required by the project. Exceeding a scanners duty cycle places additional stress on the scanner and often results in equipment failure that may void any warranties or maintenance agreements. 2 — Flatbed…

[sorry everyone -- first posting of this had some strange hidden hard returns that weren't immediately visible.] To the frustration of information architects and managers, end users have a habit of spoiling their hard work the moment they start using the system. The symptoms are many and varied: carefully designed folder structures devolve into chaos over time; despite training on document version control, copies of the same file keep appearing with version numbers, dates, and initials in the file name (e.g., “Proposal v.2 MP Comments.doc”); templates are used inconsistently or even ignored; automated workflows spawn undocumented manual workarounds… Aren’t these precisely the kinds of things that our expensive, carefully planned ECM system was supposed to eliminate? Yet in all of the apparent chaos, your users are giving you clues on better ways to organize information. For instance, when users ignore your folder hierarchy, they’re telling you something important about it: maybe it doesn’t make sense to them? Maybe they don’t understand the semantic cues because the system’s vocabulary doesn’t jibe with theirs, or perhaps there is ambiguity that forces them to make decisions they didn’t bargain for (e.g., Does an Employee Non-Disclosure Agreement go under Contracts or under HR?). Instead…

Most conversations about enterprise information or records management these days seem to involve SharePoint in one way or another. Many organizations are finding that information management is not meeting their expectations and some are wondering if SharePoint 2010 is the answer to all of their problems. Whether this push is coming from IT hoping to reduce costs, your portal team hoping for a new intranet or your user community hoping that that SharePoint will be easier to use (or all of the above), there can be no doubt that many organizations are considering a move to SharePoint. Microsoft has done a great job of driving this conversation through the functional improvements in SharePoint 2010 and also through some aggressive and effective marketing, but is SharePoint the answer for all of your content management needs? Here are eight things to think about if you are thinking about migrating your records and information management platform to SharePoint. 8 Things to Think About if You’re Thinking About Moving to SharePoint 1 — Customizations, System Integrations and Modules. Most implementations involve at least some customization, and most include a variety of vendor or third party modules. Because of this, considering a move to SharePoint…